


now i can find the truth of me

by sparklingspoiler



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Autistic Tim Drake, Coming Out, Everyone is Trans, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Gender Identity, Nonbinary Tim Drake, Trans Tim Drake, not mentioned but it's absolutely relevant to everything going on, working title for this was 'gender fuckery'
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 10:13:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29116554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparklingspoiler/pseuds/sparklingspoiler
Summary: Tim Drake solves gender, with the help of Steph, Cass, Goodwill, makeup, Claire's, and PowerPoint. Everyone ends up learning something along the way.
Relationships: Cassandra Cain & Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown & Tim Drake, Tim Drake & Everyone, Tim Drake/Kon-El | Conner Kent
Comments: 14
Kudos: 121





	now i can find the truth of me

**Author's Note:**

> This is dedicated to my own gender crisis, which is still ongoing. Solving gender is not as easy as Tim makes it look.

Steph heard footsteps in the hallway and looked up just in time to see Tim burst into her room, chest heaving like he’d just run a marathon. Well, considering the frankly inhuman endurance training all the Bats went through, a marathon probably wouldn’t bring about the small gasps that escaped Tim’s mouth. He looked like he’d come straight from a board meeting, perfectly-tailored suit only a little rumpled from the apparent sprinting he had been doing.

“I’m not a boy,” Tim said, and then face-planted onto Steph’s bed, right next to where Steph was sitting, cross-legged, and doing homework. Steph stared at him, bemused, then set aside her textbook and began running her hand through Tim’s hair.

“Okay,” she said. “So, I think I’m going to need more to go off of here. Is this something you’ve been chewing on for a while, or…” Silence. “Is this a coming out? Are you coming out to me right now?”

“No!” Tim exclaimed, protest muffled by Steph’s purple blanket. There was a pause, and she couldn’t see his face, but she could feel Tim reconsidering. “Well, maybe? It would be a coming-out if I knew what the fuck I was coming out as!”

“Okay,” Steph said again. She felt a little out of her depth, but not too bad. She could work with this. “Okay, what prompted this? Did something happen or did you have like, a spontaneous realization?”

“Something happened.” Tim flipped over, and now he was lying on his back, staring at the bland expanse of Steph’s ceiling. She had been meaning to hang up, like, fairy lights or something, to make it a little less boring. She and her friends and family spent more time staring at her ceiling than was statistically probable. “What happened was - ” Tim stopped, then kept going. “What _happened_ was I went to pick up lunch Tam had ordered at some bougie cafe a couple of blocks from WE and the person at the counter said ‘get her order’ or something and I was like, ‘who?’, and the person was like, ‘your order’, and they must have thought I was Tam or something, and I mean, I’m not even that feminine, am I?”

Steph considered it. “I could see the hair throwing someone off. And your voice is kind of squeaky, I mean, no offense.”

Tim sighed. “None taken. At least you didn’t say I sound like I’m twelve years old. I get enough of that from Kon, and oh my god, _Dick._ He’s such a dick, I swear! The other day he was like, I’ll drop you off with Damian at - ” Tim paused. “I’m getting off-topic, aren’t I?”

“A little bit,” Steph admitted.

“Okay. Okay, so they thought I was a girl I guess, and I was going to correct them, but I _didn’t_. I just got the food and gave it to Tam and then I told her to cancel all my meetings for the rest of the day and then I ran here. Well, I ran to the bus stop, and I took the bus a little bit, and then I ran the rest of the way.”

“That’s a lot,” Steph said. She struggled not to laugh because she thought it might come off as mocking, instead of deeply amused.

“It is! So I was thinking on the bus like, I liked that. I really liked that. And like, I’ve never had any problem with male pronouns. They’re fine, I guess. But that just felt _better_. It felt right. Then I was thinking, shit, am I even a boy? And then I realized that I wasn’t attached to being a boy at all. And then I had a bit of a panic attack.”

Steph hummed. “So, do you want me to use she/her pronouns for you, then?”

“I - I think so.” Tim turned to press her face into Steph’s thigh. “I’m so confused.”

“Do you think you’re a girl?”

“I don’t… think so. But I’m definitely not a boy. I don’t want to use masculine pronouns anymore.” Steph felt the vibrations of Tim’s frustrated noise in her thigh. “I don’t get this. Up until like, recently, I’ve never even considered I might not be a boy. I was _fine_. But now - I can’t even - it’s like when I tried soy milk for the first time and then I couldn’t go back to regular milk. I used to be just fine with regular milk, but soy milk is just so much _better._ ”

“I’m pretty sure you’re the only person who thinks that.” Tim hit Steph’s shin with surprising force. “Okay, so you’re not going to use he/him pronouns anymore. She/her is fine. What about they/them?”

Tim thought for a second. “Try it in a sentence?”

“So my friend Tim, I think they might be an alien because they swear by _soy milk_ and -” Tim punched her shin again, but Steph could feel her giggle. She congratulated herself on filling her daily goal of ‘making Tim laugh at least once’. She and the rest of the Batkids had a running tally of who could do it the most. Steph was proud of her undisputed place at the top, though Dick was gaining ground lately, and Cass made an excellent dark horse.

“I liked that,” Tim said. “I liked that a lot.”

“So, she/they pronouns. You’re not a boy, and you’re not quite a girl, so you’re nonbinary, then?”

“Nonbinary,” Tim repeated. “I’m nonbinary. I’m _nonbinary._ ” She repeated it a couple more times. “Holy shit.” They turned up to look at Steph in awe.

Steph beamed back. “There, gender crisis solved!”

“Somehow I don’t think it’s going to be quite that easy.”

* * *

Tim stared at the racks upon racks of clothing at the closest Goodwill. ‘Not easy’ was an understatement.

“Come on, Boy Wonder,” Steph said, then immediately winced. “Sorry.”

“No, that’s fine,” Tim said distractedly. They were staring at a flowing, knee-length skirt, black with red embroidered flowers, displayed on a mannequin near the front of the store.

“Is it really fine, or do you just feel bad about correcting me?”

Tim tore her eyes away from the display to really think over the question. “I don’t… I don’t _mind_ being called Boy Wonder. I like it when you call me that. God, that’s so weird. I’m not a boy, but when you’re saying that, it’s more of a term of endearment than anything, so… god, why can’t this all be _simpler_?”

“No one ever said gender was _simple._ Well, the people who want you to think gender is simple are probably trying to make money.”

Tim slumped at the truth in that statement, and then straightened up with renewed determination. “I’m Tim Drake. I’ve never seen a problem I couldn’t solve. I am going to solve this.”

“You’re going to solve… gender?”

“I’m going to solve _my_ gender. Experimentation starts now, and it starts,” they pointed at the display they had been staring at, “with trying on _that_.”

Steph insisted that Tim needed to find a shirt to match, so they flipped through rows upon rows of shirts, trying to find something that _clicked_ like the skirt had. Tim quickly got overwhelmed and began fiddling with the hem of her Superboy shirt. Steph noticed their discomfort with no small amount of amusement.

“You’ve never been inside a Goodwill before, have you?” Tim looked away, and Steph laughed. “Oh my god, you haven’t! You rich bitch! Where do you even get your clothes? Don’t tell me _Alfred_ buys them for you.”

“I get all my suits tailored.”

“Tim, if you exclusively wore suits, I would have noticed and insisted on this shopping trip way sooner.”

“I - I -” Tim stuttered. Steph continued to laugh.

“You what?”

“I -” Tim gritted their teeth. “I usually steal clothes from Young Justice. Or Cass. Or Dick.”

“Oh. My. God. Whose clothes are you wearing right now?”

“Kon’s shirt,” Tim admitted. “Cissie’s jeans. Cassie’s hoodie.”

Steph laughed even harder. Tim, against her will, began to laugh along with her.

“I don’t even -” Tim gasped. “Usually I don’t even bring a change of clothes to change into when we train. I show up in uniform and take someone else’s.”

“How - how has nobody noticed?”

“Oh, they definitely have. Cassie and Kon have both started bringing two outfits each. The other day, I was looking in Cassie’s bag, and she said, ‘take the _Depeche Mode_ shirt! I bought it for you!’”

They laughed until their throats hurt. When they eventually had to come up for air, Steph waggled her eyebrows at Tim. “I bet Kon _loves_ it when you wear his shirts.” 

Tim went red. “I - he -” She sighed. “He started bringing them in my size, but I take the bigger ones anyway.”

“Of course you do.”

Eventually, they chanced upon a flannel shirt with black lace edging which Steph deemed, “a suitable mix of skater girl and goth to fit your batshit aesthetic.” She paused, then repeated, “batshit,” and they fell into another round of uncontrollable giggles.

Steph pushed Tim into the dressing room. “I would come in there with you, but I’m worried they’ll think we’re making out.” She paused. “Do you want to make out in the Goodwill dressing room?”

Tim blushed. “No - I mean, not today. Maybe another time.”

Steph smiled at them. “Somehow I don’t think that’s gonna happen. Now, come on! I want to see!” She slammed the door in Tim’s face.

Alone in the dressing room, Tim took a moment to contemplate the situation. She and Steph had talked for hours after that initial realization in Steph’s room, going over what it might mean for Tim. They hadn’t come out to anyone else, yet, but wondered at whether or not they wanted to start dressing more traditionally feminine. “Only one way to find out!” Steph had said and dragged her to go shopping with an iron grip and an encouraging smile.

When she had zipped up the skirt and shrugged on the flannel, she stared at herself in the mirror and thought, yes. Yes! She resisted the urge to squeal at how _right_ her reflection felt. The flannel was a little too tight around their biceps, and the skirt’s waistline was maybe an inch or two too big, but none of that mattered. She looked like a 90’s punk singer. So, ideal.

Experiment successful, Tim thought. Gender is one step closer to being solved.

* * *

“Makeup. I want to try makeup.”

Steph looked at Tim. They were lounging on Steph’s bed again, wearing their new clothes. As far as Steph knew, Tim hadn’t worn them to any destination but Steph’s bedroom. “I can’t help you with makeup right now, Tim. I’m doing homework. I’m catching up on homework that _your_ gender crisis distracted me from.”

Tim’s face did something that was almost a pout but mostly looked ridiculous. “Why are you being responsible? I’m the responsible one. I thought you would jump at the chance of doing anything other than work.”

Steph sighed. “Unfortunately, a college degree isn’t something that just appears out of thin air one day. You have to _work_ for it.”

Tim shrugged. “I wouldn’t know.”

“Right, you dropped out of high school. Really trying to hit all the skater stereotypes, huh? What’s next? Gonna smoke weed? Start wearing beanies?”

“I don’t own a beanie. And I got my GED, Steph!”

“Did you get your GED because you wanted to, or because the board threatened to make you drop the teenage CEO schtick if you didn’t?”

“I’m not the CEO anymore. I’m the COO. Chief operating officer. And the majority shareholder. But… the second one.”

Steph smirked. “Exactly. _Burnout_.”

“Okay, I’m not denying that. In fact, I think I’ll embrace it. What do burnouts always wear? _Eyeliner_. I need to know how to put it on properly. The last time I tried, I was eleven, and I stabbed myself in the eye and had to call a cab to take me to the hospital.”

Steph winced at the image. “Look, Tim, I want to help you, I really do. But I’m not even that good at makeup. I never wear eyeliner, or mascara, or…” Steph considered it. “Wow, I don’t wear any makeup at all. I don’t think I even own any.”

Tim groaned. “Come on, Steph! I was really counting on you! Who else am I possibly going to ask?”

They both paused to consider the girls in Tim’s life.

“Cassie?”

“She’s a butch lesbian, Steph.”

“Point. What about Cissie?”

Tim just looked at her.

“Right. Anita, then?”

“I don’t want to bother her. She has her hands full, you know, parenting her parents.”

“I’m sure she wouldn’t mind. But, okay then… Barbara?”

“Again, I don’t want to take up her time. She’s been swamped lately.”

“Yeah...” Steph really wracked her brain. “...what was the mist girl’s name? Greta?

“Greta’s hands are kind of shaky. I can’t imagine she’d be any good at that kind of thing. I mean, I’ve never seen her wear any.”

Silence, for a good while. Then, tentatively, “...Selina?”

Tim stared at Steph in horror. “Selina? Selina Kyle, my stepmom? That Selina? Are you joking?”

Steph threw her hands up in defeat. Tim buried their face in a pillow. They sat in comfortable misery for a second, before something occurred to Steph. “You know,” she started, “Cass does all her makeup for her recitals. Foundation, eye makeup, blush, lipstick - the whole thing.”

Tim peeked out from behind the pillow. “Really?”

“Yeah, I saw her following tutorials on YouTube once. She looks really good too. I mean, the stuff she does is pretty exaggerated, because it has to look good under the lights, but…”

Tim stayed silent.

“You… you should probably come out to your family at some point. Unless you want to stay in the closet forever?” Tim shook her head. “I think Cass is the best place to start, anyway. She’s gonna love you no matter what.”

Tim sighed. “You’re right. Why are you always right?”

Steph grinned. “That’s for me to know and you to mope about.”

* * *

Cass was listening to a book, upside down with her head hanging off the side of her bed, when she sensed Tim standing hesitantly in her doorway. She paused her audiobook and slipped her headphones off, but didn’t bother reorienting herself - just stared at Tim.

“Cass?” Tim said. “I, um, have something to tell you.”

Cass patted the space next to her on the bed. Tim joined her, mirroring her position. “What is it?” Cass asked. She could sense Tim’s discomfort and determination, fighting for dominance.

“I -” Tim wiggled a little bit, then continued. “I’m not a boy. I’m nonbinary, and I would like it if you could use she/they pronouns for me from now on.” The sentence had clearly been scripted out in Tim’s head.

“I’m not sure what that means,” Cass said. She knew there were many gaps in her knowledge, words she couldn’t put to concepts and concepts she couldn’t put into words, but she had long since gotten over what little shame she might have had in admitting it. Learning wasn’t a weakness; it made her stronger.

Tim frowned a little. Cass could see them struggling for the right words - a familiar emotion. “It means… I’m not a boy,” Tim repeated. “I’m not really a girl either. I’m… somewhere in between? Nonbinary is like, any gender identity that doesn’t fit in the set binary of male/female. So any cool gender, basically.”

Cass smiled at Tim. “I think your gender is very cool.”

“Thank you, Cass. I don’t know, I’ve been figuring things out lately. I think I was only really attached to being a guy because that’s what I’ve been told I _should_ be all my life, and, well, all of the people I looked up to were men. And then, when I became Robin, it was like, constantly being reinforced that I was the _Boy_ Wonder, you know? So I think maybe I was trying to be more masculine than I actually was, to live up to that ideal. And, you know, my parents would have killed me if I was trans.” Tim’s eyes suddenly widened. “Oh my god, Cass, do you think my parents are going to rise from the grave and kill me for being trans? Considering my life experiences, that’s not exactly unprecedented. In fact, it’s statistically probable!”

Cass considered that. “If they do, I will put them _back_ in the grave.”

Tim smiled gratefully at her. “I know you would, Cass. You’re my favorite sister.”

Cass thought for a second. “So if you’re nonbinary, you’re not a boy or a girl?”

“Yeah. Or you’re both, or you’re something else entirely.”

“I’m nonbinary,” Cass decided. “I’m not a boy or a girl.”

“Really?” Tim looked overjoyed, then tampered down their expression. “I mean, wow! We can be nonbinary together! Does that mean… I mean, do you…” She trailed off into excited babbling. 

“I… I think I feel similar to you. I am a girl because other people tell me I am. I’m not really a girl.” Cass frowned. “I liked being Batgirl. I was Batgirl, but I wasn’t a girl.”

Tim nodded. “I totally get it. When Steph calls me Boy Wonder, you know, I like it. I liked being the Boy Wonder. But I’m not a _boy_.”

They sat together in silence for a good while, comfortable in the fact that they understood each other perfectly. Finally, Tim said, “So, if you’re nonbinary… what about pronouns?”

“What _about_ pronouns?”

“Like, do you like she/her pronouns? Or do you want to use something different?”

“I don’t know.”

Tim beamed over at Cass. “Experiment time, Cass. We’ll solve your gender for sure.”

Several experiments later, they determined that Cass liked they/them pronouns, exclusively. They decided they deserved hot chocolate, to celebrate their victory over gender. In the kitchen, a lightbulb went off over Tim’s head. “I completely forgot! I was going to come out to you, and ask you to teach me how to do makeup!”

“I can do that,” Cass said. “Let me help you with _your_ gender, little sibling.” They migrated to the largest bathroom in the Manor, with a stop at Cass’s room to retrieve their frankly ridiculous makeup collection. Tim locked the bathroom door behind them. 

“We are not coming out,” Tim said, “until I’ve perfected winged eyeliner.”

“A reasonable goal. That shouldn’t take too long.”

Six hours later, Tim could do winged eyeliner in their sleep, and they escaped the bathroom, content in being one step closer to solving gender.

* * *

Tim was going through a list of gendered terms of endearment, crossing off the ones she didn’t want to be applied to her. Steph was once again attempting to do homework, and actually making progress, when Tim said, “I need to get my ears pierced.”

Steph groaned and shut her textbook. That was the end of progress, then. “Now? You need to get your ears pierced now?”

“Yes, I do. Where did you get yours done?”

Steph smiled and reached up to fiddle with her dangling purple earrings. “I got them pierced when I was thirteen, at Claire’s. Actually, that was the reason I first got a fake ID.”

Tim stared at her. “You got your first fake ID… to get your ears pierced… at Claire’s? Not even, like, a tattoo parlor?”

Steph shrugged. “I also used it to buy booze. But that doesn’t matter. You have to get them pierced at Claire’s. It’s like a rite of passage.”

“I don’t know,” Tim said. “I’m worried about how sanitary it might be to get them done there.”

“Oh, that’s part of the fun! You get them pierced at Claire’s, they get infected, and then you go to the doctor to get the infection cured and the doctor _actually_ pierces your ears.”

“Are you joking?”

“Yeah, I’m joking. Come on, it’s fine. Mine never got infected.”

“If you say so…”

“Do you want to go right now? We’ve got a few hours before patrol.”

“Sure,” Tim said. Then something occurred to them. “Does Cass have their ears pierced? They don’t, right? Do you think they want to?”

“Only one way to find out!”

Cass did, in fact, want to get their ears pierced. The three of them piled in Steph’s car and drove to Gotham Mall. The Claire’s employee, a bored teenage girl named Destiny, recognized Tim and Cassandra Wayne and was ecstatic that they had decided to wander into her particular Claire’s. She was less ecstatic when Tim made her disinfect the equipment three times before they let it come even close to their ear.

* * *

“Steph. I need your help.”

Steph paused painting Tim’s nails black. “Have I ever heard that statement come out of your mouth before? This feels like a milestone. Did you have a breakthrough in therapy yesterday?”

Tim swatted at Steph with her right hand, ruining the still-drying nail polish. Steph sighed exaggeratedly. “This is serious!” Tim said. “I have no idea how to come out to my family. You gotta brainstorm with me.”

“Why not just do it like you did with me and Cass?”

Tim grimaced. “Somehow I don’t think bursting in their bedrooms and announcing that I’m not a boy is the best way to go about it.”

Steph shrugged. “How did you come out as bisexual?”

Tim winced at the memory. “I don’t think that method applies in this situation.”

“Oh, now you _have_ to tell me.”

Tim looked away. “Come _on_ ,” Steph said. “I never ask you for anything. I have helped you through this whole crisis and never asked for anything.”

“Except for this?”

“Except for this,” Steph agreed.

“Okay, well… the whole family was worried because I hadn’t left my room except to patrol for like, three weeks. So they were going to stage an intervention, and they picked the lock on my door and I - I was with Kon. There was TTK involved, we were - floating. Naked.”

Steph stared at them for a moment. Then she burst out laughing. Tim swatted her again. “It’s not funny! It was mortifying! Bruce tried to give me the _talk_ afterward. I couldn’t look him in the eye for a month.” Tim shuddered. “I think I traumatized Damian. He wouldn’t look _me_ in the eye for months after.”

“Only you would manage your _entire family_ catching you having kinky alien sex. This is the best day of my life.”

“It was the _worst_ day of mine. And that doesn’t even work for coming out as trans anyway. So I am never repeating the experience. Ever.”

Steph finally calmed herself down. Then she looked thoughtful. “Well, you could do something like… what if you just start dressing more feminine and wearing makeup, and you wait until someone asks you about it, and you come out then?”

Tim rolled their eyes. “Steph, you’ve met my family. You are a part of my family. They are allergic to any conversations that might lead to intense emotion. And for a bunch of detectives, they are so oblivious. Remember how long it took them to realize Jason and Kyle had eloped and gotten married in space? He wore his wedding rings every day for a _year_ straight.”

Steph cringed at the memory. A year into the marriage, Jason had taken Kyle to a gala. Some well-meaning socialite had asked Jason how he knew Kyle, and when he said, “he’s my husband,” Dick let out an inhuman shriek and spit his champagne in Jason’s face.

“Okay, you’re right. In this family, it pays to be explicit. So, maybe -” Tim interrupted her with a screech of triumph.

“I’m a fucking genius! A PowerPoint!”

Steph resisted the urge to pretend she was a sitcom character staring straight into the camera.

“But…” Tim deflated.

“But what?”

“What if they don’t get it?” Tim whined.

“Well, they don’t have to get it to respect your pronouns and identity. But I’m sure if anyone can make them understand, it’s you. Just explain, like - you don’t feel connected to the gender you were assigned at birth or any binary gender. You feel like you’ve always been wearing the mask of your assigned gender, because it was what people told you you had to do, and it was what you thought… it was what you thought…” Steph trailed off, looking down at the bottle of nail polish in her hand. “Oh my god.”

“What?” Tim prodded. “What is it?”

“I’m nonbinary,” Steph whispered. “I’m - I’m not a girl. Or, I’m not completely a girl. I’m girl-adjacent, maybe, but… I’m nonbinary.”

“Oh my god,” Tim screamed. “Oh my god! I’m so happy for you!” They leaned over to hug Steph, knocking the nail polish over and spilling it all over Steph’s blanket.

When they finally broke apart, Tim was smiling broadly, and Steph smiled back. “I knew it,” Tim said. “I knew you were too cool to be cis.”

“Of course I am. I’m at least cooler than _you_.” Steph noticed the spilled nail polish. “Shit! That stuff is a bitch to wash out.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll buy you a new blanket. A ‘Congrats on the cool gender’ gift!”

* * *

“So. I bet you’re all wondering why I’ve gathered you here today.” Tim looked at the faces seated around the conference table in the Batcave. Bruce's expression was unreadable, as always. Dick looked curious, Jason was curious and bloodthirsty, Damian simply bloodthirsty. Duke looked a little annoyed, for some reason. Steph was grinning and giving them a thumbs up and Cass was mirroring Steph from the other side of the table.

“I’ve been going through a bit of a personal crisis lately, and I thought it was finally time to clue you all in. So I made a PowerPoint.” They connected the projector to their computer and pulled up the slideshow, titled, ‘Solving Gender by Tim Drake.’ “Any questions before I begin the presentation?”

Jason raised his hand politely. “Yes, Jason?”

“That’s not PowerPoint, that’s Google Slides,” Jason said, just to be contrary. Tim and Jason engaged in a staring contest that only slightly wavered when Duke cleared his throat.

“Yes, Duke?” Tim continued to look into Jason’s eyes.

“How long is this going to take? I was supposed to leave for patrol like, ten minutes ago.” Tim looked at him from the corner of their eye, and Jason made a loud cheering noise in victory. Tim sighed at her loss and turned to look more closely. Duke was in fact suited up.

“Day shift can wait, Duke. Tim has something important to tell us.” Steph, always there for her. Tim cursed their own thoughtlessness at not taking into account Duke’s schedule. Then she pushed the guilt aside because solving gender was more important than whatever petty crime Duke fought. Did crime even happen in the daytime?

Tim voiced that thought to Duke. He gave her an incredulous look. “Yes. Crime does in fact happen during the day. What did you think I did during patrol?”

Tim thought for a second. “Helped old ladies cross the street?”

Duke continued to stare at them. Tim sighed. “Okay, okay, I’ll keep it brief. Steph said I should just bite the bullet anyways.” The room stared as Tim clicked through five, ten, fifteen slides, finally landing on one that said, ‘Congrats! It’s neither a boy nor a girl!’ “Well, I think the slide speaks for itself, but basically I’m nonbinary. I’m definitely not a boy, I might be a little bit a girl, but not really, and I would like it if you could all use she/they pronouns for me, effective immediately. Any questions?”

No one had time to react before Steph cried, “Are you kidding me? Are you telling me the thirty-slide PowerPoint you spend a week putting together and stressing over could be summed up in two sentences?”

“It’s Google Slides,” Jason muttered. He looked a little like he was going into shock.

“Newsflash, asshole! I don’t care! Okay, if that’s how it’s going to go, I have something to say too.” Steph stood up. “I’m also nonbinary, and I also use she/they pronouns.”

Everyone in the room turned to stare at Steph, and Tim felt things slipping away from her like they always did. “Steph!” she hissed. “Why are you hijacking my coming out?”

“I figured since we were already on the topic!”

Someone else stood up. Everyone turned once more to stare at Cass. “Steph is right. Since we are on the topic, I’m coming out. I’m nonbinary too. They/them pronouns please.”

Tim facepalmed as Steph grinned at Cass. “Rock on, dude! This is the greatest day ever!”

“This is not at all how I thought this would go.”

“Suck it up, Boy Wonder. I wasn’t gonna call my own family meeting. This was the best opportunity.”

“Ahem.”

“Steph, I expected something would go wrong with. But you, Cass? Et Tu, Brute?”

“What?”

“Ahem.”

“I’m saying, how could you betray me like this?”

“Not a betrayal. I’m taking advantage of an opportunity.”

“It feels an awful lot like a betrayal to me!”

Bruce stood up and slammed his hand on the table. The room fell silent as everyone turned to look at him.

“Bruce?” Dick said tentatively. “Are you… coming out as nonbinary too?”

Bruce looked pained. “No, I - this was getting away from us. Tim - and Steph, and Cass. I’m very proud of you all. I hope you know you’ll always be accepted here, no matter what.”

Tim blinked over at him, then smiled. “Thanks, B. I know.”

Dick stood as well, but it was clear he wasn’t announcing he was trans, but in fact reaching over to pull Tim into a hug. “I’m proud of you, too! Cass, Steph, get over here! Bruce, Duke, and Jason too!” Cass, Steph, and Duke immediately jumped over to join the hug. After a moment, Jason stood and joined as well. He had a token look of annoyance on his face, but his arms were warm and solid, and he ruffled Tim’s hair. Bruce didn’t join the group hug, but he looked on with an absurdly fond look on his face.

After a while, Tim finally broke away for air and looked over at the smallest occupant of the room, who hadn’t joined the group hug. “Damian? You’ve been quiet. Suspiciously so.”

Damian scowled at the comment but mostly looked baffled. “I wasn’t… I wasn’t really aware that any of this was an option. I… have much to think about.”

Tim took in Damian’s words. Then they grinned, wildly. There was nothing Tim loved more than solving problems; solving their own was one thing, but solving someone else’s? She lived for it.

And well, they did always like a challenge.

“Don’t worry about it, Damian. Leave it to your big sibling. We’ll solve your gender in no time.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Comments and feedback make me very happy <3


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